DONN FELKER

Lessons Learned From the Software Industry

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How Often You Should Visit Your Clients

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In freelancing, it’s pretty rare that you’ll go visit your client. However, there are times in your career when visiting your client is the sensible thing to do.

There are three parts to this:

  1. Why you want to visit your client
  2. What clients you should visit
  3. How often should you visit
    ​

Let’s talk about why you’d want to visit your client first.

Why You Want to Visit Your Client​

The Why
Physically visiting a client builds rapport and connection. That’s what it’s about.​

You might be thinking …​

“Yeah, but I do that over video chat. I’m good.”

Good? Maybe.

Optimal? Not likely.

If you’re a creative professional that works in software, design, copywriting, etc. – you can and most likely will do all of your work remotely. You will have video calls, conference calls, and exchange upwards of hundreds of emails with clients. This is normal and also builds rapport. You should do this.

However, there’s something about a connection of seeing someone face-to-face.

You build a bond that’s much closer when you see someone in person.

When you go on a date, do they do it over video chat every time?

No. They meet up in person.

There’s a physical component involved that cannot be replicated over digital mediums.​

When you meet up in person, you can shake hands, bump fists, hug, etc. You cannot get that same level of human connection digitally, regardless of how hard you try.

Not to get all woo-woo metaphysical on you … but … something exchanged between people in the same vicinity. Call it energy, presence, whatever you want … you can feel it. This brings people closer together.

​There’s a reason world leaders meet together, in person. It builds more of a connection. Sure, they could do everything over a video call, but it is simply not the same as an in-person meeting/exchange.

Furthermore … humans are far more perceptual aware than most of us realize. Being around your client in their physical environment opens you up to many interactions that you may have been ignorant to previously.

This is also one of the key reasons why meeting up with your clients can be a good thing – you will learn more about your clients and the situations they face daily.

Perhaps you work with a construction client, and you’re not sure why your client can never get back to you between the hours of 10 am-2 pm. Upon visiting them, you witness that this is when major operational chaos happens during the day (for whatever reason). No one would have told this to you; you simply noticed it and can now connect the dots. This builds rapport and understanding. You can communicate more effectively and possibly even see a way to help improve those processes too.

You make yourself more valuable.

In other words … You get to see what the client is up to and how they work; you understand them better. You develop a common ground and shared experiences.

When you’re around people, you get to break bread with them and see the places they frequent. Notice the exciting things in their area. All of these things can be used in your communication with your client.

All of the things you witness and experience open the door of opportunity for you to have deeper conversations and connections with your client. I’m not saying that you need to know the skeletons in their closet. Not at all. However, knowing if they enjoy soccer or baseball, pizza or pasta, or getting up every day and getting to the gym by 6am is a huge connection that doesn’t happen unless you spend some time with a client. Yes, this can happen remotely, too; however, it’s more unnatural that way.

Before we continue … let me ask you this … (just to drill the point home)

​Who do you think you’d get along better with? 🤔

A person who has never been to your favorite lunch spot, never eaten a meal with, and never had a more profound conversion with?

… or …

The person who has been to your favorite taco joint and eaten that delicious chimichanga while discussing your favorite movies and pastimes?

My guess is going to be the latter one.

That what this is about. It’s about building connection and rapport.

​When clients are comfortable with you, like you, and want to be around you, you’re more likely to get your contract extended and renewed.

Additionally, you’re more likely to be referred internally within a company for other opportunities. Lastly, and most frequently, the people on the team will remember you and will reach out to you for years to come because you have a personal connection with them.

I can’t tell you how many consulting and freelancing opportunities I’ve had because I’ve decided to spend a little bit of time with some of my clients for dinner or a couple of days on-site. It always comes back to pay massive dividends to develop personal yet business-oriented relationships with your clients.

​

What Clients You Should Visit

Typically I will only visit a client if it falls under a particular set of pretty narrow circumstances:

  • The client is highly valuable
  • The client is close
  • The opportunity cost to benefit is significant​

I will not meet up with clients who need a small WordPress site built, and they are 200 miles away. I typically won’t meet up with clients if it’s a small job (a couple of days up to a month or so). There are always caveats to this – such as when the client is in the same town as you. However, if the client requires me to travel, I’ll only visit them based upon the criteria that you’ll learn about next.

​

Highly Valuable Clients

I define a highly valuable client as one which has a significant financial upside long term. This is usually going to a client where the contract is 3-6 months or more. Especially if the contract is a year or more.

These clients help reduce the risk involved with freelancing and consulting as the contracts are much longer. I want to make sure I’m making this client as happy as possible so that the relationship and project(s) are successful. I also want to make sure this relationship continues to be a prosperous one.

​

The Client is Close

You need to make sure that you value the client and your time accordingly. If the client is “close,” then I will potentially meet up with them on-site or for coffee/etc.

What is close?

​I consider anything 45 minutes or less is “close” for me. This will vary for you and your living situation. For you, 3 hours might be close.

This is going to have to be a metric that you decide. For me, it’s 45 minutes. For you, it might be an hour or two.

You have to gauge your hourly rate vs. travel and the network opportunity cost.

Put another way, there’s a big difference between meeting up with a dentist who is 3 hours away who wants a new website versus meeting up with a high-profile tech CEO who needs a new web app in your given area of expertise (who is also 3 hours away). You can imagine already which one will be a better decision (it’s the high profile CEO).

I’m not saying you should ignore the dentist. You should consider meeting up with the CEO in person while doing a video chat with the dentist. This brings us to …

​

The Opportunity Cost to Benefit is Significant

What is “opportunity cost”?

It is what you must forgo to get something in exchange.

An example might be going for a run for 45 minutes a day to stay healthy. The cost is the 45 minutes and the struggle that comes with the exercise. The benefit is the result: improved fitness and health.

In freelancing, the cost might be: traveling for 3 days to visit a client, but the benefit might be an extended contract or a new contact.

In the case of clients, I will often visit them on-site when the benefit of doing so outweighs the cost. In other words, I see them as very valuable to my longer-term success. I see more opportunities with them. Therefore I gladly accept the cost of visiting them. Which sometimes includes the cost of travel and logistics surrounding it, which I’ll talk about in another post.

The relationship needs to show potential value to outweigh the cost of visiting the client.

How often you should visit?

For me, this depends on how far away the client is.

I’m basing my experience solely on working in the domestic USA, so your experience will vary if you’re in other world areas, such as Europe, Asia, etc.

I have a matrix I use to determine how often I will visit a client:

​​

0-4 Hours Away

For the first option, this would typically be clients I can drive to. When your clients are closer, it’s easier to get to them, and you don’t spend so much time doing so. Therefore, I will visit them more often.

In the matrix above, I do not make a visit unless it’s 1-3 months, but even then, sometimes it’s not necessary if it’s only a 5-week project (hence the 0-1 scale). After that, I will try to visit every month or every other month.

4+ Hours Away

These are clients that are going to require more than 1/2 a day of travel to get to. Therefore it’s a pain to get to them, so the frequency goes down. For a 12 month contract, the minimum I’d like to be on site is twice a year. If I can get there 4 times, great.

​

How long do you stay?

Typically I will say anywhere from 2-5 days. I find the sweet spot to be around 2-3 days usually. You can get in, work hard, find a rhythm, and not get too bored with the day-to-day minutiae. Your time will be valued, and you won’t be seen as an extra just lingering around the office. You want to get in, get known, get to know people, interact and build rapport with some meetings, lunches, and dinners and then be on your way. 2-3 days makes you squeeze stuff in there, but it doesn’t feel as rushed as a 24-hour turnaround trip would be.

​

The Final Word

There is much more to the strategy of traveling to visit your clients, such as how to break bread with them, having drinks, time and expenses, and more. I’ll share more of that in upcoming posts and it will be covered in-depth in my upcoming book on how to start survive and thrive in freelancing and consulting (coming out later in 2021).

By the way, if you want to get notified of the book and get some early bonus content, please be sure to hop on my mailing list (below or here).

 

📷 ​​Photo by Marco López on Unsplash

How to Ship Side Projects 🚀

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How to Ship Side Projects

In this post, I’m going to teach you how to ship your side projects.

How to turn them into a potential business. Keyword: potential. There are no promises here.

I can’t turn water into wine, people. 😉

Now, back to shipping side projects …

It’s easy once you realize how difficult it is.

Yeah, that sounds bass-ackwards. 🤔

I’m serious, though. It is easy once you see that the difficult thing is looking you in the mirror.

Yes, you’re getting in your own way, and you don’t even know it.

I’ve been shipping side projects for over 20 years. Some did well, most failed. It’s how it goes. You have to roll with the punches here.

What is a side project?

A side project could be something as simple as:

  • A weekly newsletter (like this one)
  • A weekly blog post
  • A mobile app you wrote
  • A web app you wrote
  • A tool you created
  • An open-source project you created
  • A script you wrote
  • A framework you developed
  • A physical book you wrote
  • An ebook you wrote
  • A video
  • A tutorial
  • …

You get it. A side project could be anything that you want.

For the sake of this post, I’m going to stick with a software product, though.

It could be a mobile app or web app, or even a desktop tool.

Nuff fluff: Let’s get to it.

Tip 1: Realize That You’re Going to Fail

The sooner you realize that your chances of success are low, the faster you can ship it.

You’re thinking: “What? Huh?”

Once you embrace this thought … you have nothing to lose.

If you don’t ship your side-project, you’re in no better spot than you are now. The only difference is that you have a bunch of dead code in a folder on your drive somewhere (your project).

If it sits on your drive, it’s worth nothing.

Yeah, blah blah blah, I know … you learned something from it, so it’s not entirely useless. I get it …

That’s not why you’re still reading this post, though.

You want to learn how to ship it. Right? Right.

Embrace the truth that most likely, this project will fail, but you don’t know for certain until you try.

I want you to know that I’m not trying to be a downer here. I’m trying to help you realize that this is the reality of shipping side projects.

So… ship it already.

Tip 2: Forget about monetizing it for now

You most likely fret over this like crazy.

I know I have more times than I’d like to admit. Hell, I still do it.

You get stuck in an analysis paralysis loop of the following questions:

  • “How can I make money off of this?”
  • “Will the user pay for it?”
  • “Should this be a one-time payment or monthly subscription?”
  • “Can I monetize this with ads?”
  • “Can I find enough 43-year-old moms who drive Ford minivans built between the years of 2008-2012 that will buy my custom rear-facing baby dashcam mount?”

First of all. Forget ads. That ship has sailed.

Storytime – back in 2008, I had 4.5 million app installs of one of my side project apps, and I was making $60-$100 a day. Things aren’t like that anymore.

Yes, that’s good money for a side project, but that didn’t last long. That got shut down soon after the ad rates dropped.

Ok, so ads are out … unless you really do like living off of Ramen from the dollar store. So … what about the other options?

If you don’t have a solid plan out of the gate, ignore pricing right now and ship it.

This concept cemented one day after I heard Josh Pigford talk about this on one of his podcasts.

The TLDR is this – if you have a side project – ship it and get it out there. If it’s popular, then figure out how to monetize it. There will often be a clear path on how to monetize. If not, then run it for a while to see if you can identify a monetization method or shut it down.

In other words, if you’re having a hard time deciding how to monetize your side project – don’t. Ship it and see if the market likes it first. If there is a positive response, then think about it and adjust, but don’t let it distract you from shipping.

Tip 3: Ship it before its ready

You had to know this one was coming.

This is age-old advice that I still adhere to.

As the saying goes, “If you’re not embarrassed by what you shipped, you shipped too late.“

Why would you do this?

To see if there is any interest in your project.

Consider these scenarios:

  • A) You ship early and learn that the market did not respond to your project. No one uses it. Ok, no harm – no foul. You cut your losses and move on.
  • B) You ship early and find out people like it. You accept their feedback and improve the product. Awesome.
  • C) You don’t ship until it’s perfect. You ship it and realize that your assumptions about the market were wrong. No one uses it, or no one understands it because of many incorrect assumptions made. You realize you wasted a tremendous amount of time.

Most everyone defaults to scenario C. They wait until it’s perfect to ship something.

Stop it. Ship it now.

Your terms and conditions weren’t done? Ship it.

Your privacy policy isn’t done yet? Ship it.

Your monthly billing isn’t done yet? Ship it.

Wait, what? Billing isn’t done … and ship it?

Yes. Ship it.

There are many companies that have shipped without functioning billing software. They wanted to get it into the public quick. These companies had another 4 weeks to wrap up the billing stuff while the users gave other valuable feedback.

Contact page isn’t done? No problem. Use a form like TypeForm. Ship it.

You get the point. Ship it when you’re still somewhat embarrassed by it, and then refine it.

Tip 4: Don’t attach your emotions to your project

I cant’ tell you how many times I’ve done this.

This is when your project is YOU. You and your project are one. It’s like a child to you.

Bad mistake.

You’re setting yourself up for some upset.

Ask me how I know.

When you attach your emotions to your project, you will make emotional decisions. Emotional decisions are usually not great ones. Furthermore, they’re often slow.

This could be anything from pricing decisions to feature decisions to support responses. Anything for that matter.

When (not if) users criticize your project, it will sting and often feel like a direct attack. That’s not their intention, but if an emotion is at play, it can feel like an attack.

This makes it hard for you to detach and do the work necessary to improve your project once it’s shipped.

Tip 5: Treat it as a learning experience

This is tip #1’s cousin.

You already know that your project has a high chance of failure. You’re not upset about it because you’re putting it out there to see if it gets any traction.

Another way to look at this is that what you’re doing now is a learning experience.

I recently did this with a project called “Gifstagram.” It was the easiest way to convert any gif into a loop-able MP4 file that would be post-able on Instagram.

I didn’t have any clue if anyone would pay a cent for it, but I knew that I used it and that it could be of use to others. I also wanted to know how to use Amazon AWS Lambda functions, and this was a perfect opportunity to learn how to use them. So that’s what I did … I created the entire web app on AWS with AWS Lambda, SES, API Gateway, Aurora, and S3.

I treated it as a learning experience to say I was able to ship a project that used all these technologies.

Let me tell you something … WOW, I learned a ton on that small project.

I recently shut that project down. It was not getting used that much, and there was no clear path to monetization.

The learning opportunity was worth its weight in gold, though. Treat your side projects the same way and you always stand to gain something from it.

Tip 6: Realize whether your side project is a vitamin, painkiller, or candy

Twizzler? Runts? Skittles? I used to eat the crap out of those.

My dentist loved me because I paid him so much money.

Ok, I digress…

Your product is “Candy” if … it’s something a user would like to have and makes their life more enjoyable, but it’s not necessary.

Your product is a “Vitamin” if … it’s something that the user should use but can do without if need be.

Your product is a “Pain Killer” if … it’s something that the user wants and needs right now to solve a very immediate problem.

Which category do you think you want your product to be in?

Pain killer.

Why?

Think of it this way: You’ve got a toothache.

What do you want? Candy? A vitamin? or a Pain Killer?

You want the pain killer.

You want the problem to go away.

If your product makes a problem go away – it’s a pain killer.

If your product makes their problem less as bad, it’s a vitamin.

If your product makes their life more joyful in some way, it’s candy.

Why are these all-important?

It’s important because it will help you plan on how to sustain the project over the long term. Will it be something you can monetize, or is this a goodwill project? This helps frame the project and its potential trajectory in the market.

Think of it this way – pain killers do better than vitamins, and vitamins do better than candy. They can all work, but where do you want to spend your time? Personally, I prefer to work on painkillers.

Tip 7: Have an exit plan

In the previous tips, you learned that you can use shipping a side project as a learning experience. This is great, but when do you pull the plug on your shipped project? Or should you?

To know that, you need an exit plan.

  • This could be monetizing your project by a certain date.
  • It could be getting some maintainers to help you with your open source project by a certain date.
  • This could be shutting it down if certain metrics are not met by a certain date.
  • It could be selling your side project if you lose interest in it by a certain date.

Notice everything is date-oriented. Nothing should be perpetual. If it is, it will take up mental cycles in the background of your head. This will eat away at your personal processing power for other projects that you have.

If you plan on selling it, you can sell on an app marketplace or website marketplace. No, you’re not going to get 15x of your time you put into it. You might get a couple thousand, or if you have a lot of users but no monetization, you might get more. Don’t expect to get rich, though. See it as a nice bonus and a responsibility you no longer have to tend to.

It’s important to know that you don’t have to love your side project forever. You will outgrow it.

If you get tired of your side project, have a plan for what to do with it. Shut it down. Sell it. Deprecate it if it’s an open-source library. Do something, but don’t let it sit around. It will take up precious mental cycles.

The Final Word

Ship it early. Get feedback quickly. Don’t wait for it to be perfect. It never will be.

PS: By the way, using this exact method I recently re-launched (a Job board for Android professionals). It’s not perfect. In fact, there’s a bunch of stuff that’s simply NOT done yet on it. You know what though, many companies are using it already. Companies like Instacart, Capital One, Bumble, Snapchat, Pandora, Twilio, Vizio … the list can go on and on. Long story short – your product doesn’t have to be perfect to provide value. Just ship it.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

How to increase your productivity with outsourcing and SOPs

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Outsourcing

When you run a freelancing business (or any business for that matter), you’ll eventually need to outsource some things. 

When you outsource tasks, you need to make sure that the person executing the job is fully equipped with all the tools, instructions, and knowledge to perform the said task.

How do you ensure that?

Simple, you create an SOP (referenced as SOP going forward).

An SOP is a standard operating procedure.

An SOP is a document that contains all of the necessary information for someone to accomplish a task. 

It will contain things like, but not limited to:

  • Usernames and passwords or where to find them (I recommend using a password manager like 1Password or LastPass)
  • How to perform the task in a step by step fashion with screenshots if possible
  • Flow charts and decision trees if the process can take many branches based upon previous outcomes.
  • What to do when something goes wrong
  • How to measure success

A straightforward example of an SOP would be how to categorize transactions in your accounting system. You would create this document so that it could easily be shared with others, such as an online doc like Google Docs or something similar. 

Example SOP: 

Filename: bank-transaction-categorization-sop 

Title: Bank Transaction Categorization SOP

Steps

  • Log into accounting software (
    • Username and password will be shared with you over email via LastPass or 1Password. If you do not have it, please email you@youremail.com and let me know that you don’t have it, and I’ll get to you. 
  • Once logged in, go to Accounting -> Ledger -> Checking Register
  • Selected the “Uncategorized Tab”
  • For each transaction, please categorize it accordingly to its appropriate category. 
    • Rules of thumb: 
      • All restaurants, coffee, and similar: Categorize as Meals and Entertainment.
      • All Software Purchases: Categorize as Technology – Software
      • For Amazon.com purchases, please send me the $ amount of the transaction, and I’ll send you a screenshot of what it was. You can split this transaction into multiple categories. This situation would happen if I bought a book on consulting sales and a new mouse pad. They would have two different categorizations; therefore, the transaction needs to exist into two distinct categories.
      • … etc. (more rules of thumb if you have them)
    • If you find a transaction that you’re unsure of how to categorize, please put it into a spreadsheet and share the spreadsheet with me after you’ve completed all the categorization. Then email me once you’re ready for me to take a look. 
      • I’ll take a look at the spreadsheet and then update the expense it belongs in.
      • Once I get this done, please come back to the accounting software so that you can continue to enter the proper categorizations for the items in question. 

Success Metric

    • All transactions are either categorized or placed into a spreadsheet for review. 
    • Once I provide clarifications in the spreadsheet, you will then apply those to the accounting software.

Notes

If I do not happen to get back to you within 48 hours, please email me again or send me a text here: ___<your number>__.

Please update this document to reflect changes if any of the processes change while working on this task. Thank you!

Why you want an SOP for everything you outsource

The reason is pretty simple – it allows you to get someone up and running on a new process quickly. 

If an employee or contractor leaves, you want to get someone started on that position quickly. In other words, you want to hire and promptly train someone to do the job that the other person was doing for you.

When you have an SOP, you can do that fairly quickly.

I know, yes, sometimes the requirements of a job change over time, and the original SOP might not be applicable anymore. This is why keeping your SOP updated is so important. When the requirements of the task change, have the person performing the task up the SOP for you.

An SOP makes your life easier so you can run your business more efficiently. 

When this person does move onto new things in their life, and they’re no longer helping you run your business, you’ll be able to hire someone new and hand them an SOP for each task you want them to perform. 

Each SOP should read like a tutorial. They should complete the task without any intervention from you (though they will when starting). It should cover any edge cases that exist. If they don’t, they should always know to reach out to you if they have a problem. 

Upon resolving a new problem, that same problem and resolution need to go back into the SOP for future reference.

As you build a library of SOP’s, you’ll realize that you’re just documenting and systematizing your business. This will allow you to scale even more than you usually would. Instead of spending a day or two or a week training someone, you cut that back to a few minutes or even a few hours at most. 

You also appear much more professional to the people you bring on to help you out. It makes their life easier because they have a system that they can follow. When you eliminate decisions, you eliminate the errors. 

This is a fine line, though; you don’t want to eliminate all the decision-making because sometimes others have excellent ideas that you should adopt. However, these tasks, they’re relatively menial. They don’t require much creativity, which is why they’re great candidates for outsourcing to free up your time.

 

What kind of things should you or can you outsource?

Anything that is not your core focus should is open for outsourcing. If you’re a software developer, you shouldn’t be doing accounting and categorizing transactions, editing photos, or anything like that. If you want to do those things, you can, no harm/no foul, but it’s probably not the best use of your time.

Somethings that I have outsourced include:

  • Bookkeeping
  • Podcast Editing
  • Video Editing
  • Brand Style Development
  • Software Development for my SaaS products
  • Graphic Design
  • Video Editing
  • Newsletter Management 
  • Job Board Management

I do advise that you do all of these things first to see what is entailed in them. 

I hope that helps.

Photo by Remy_Loz on Unsplash

How to Start Freelancing If You Have Existing Responsibilities

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How do you start freelancing or consulting if you have kids and a family, and a job?

This also applies if you have a full-time demanding job. Or maybe you just have a very active personal life with family. Any of these situations can make it challenging to get going.

I know, I’ve been there.

When I started freelancing, I worked a full-time job and had a wife and two small kids (both under 3).

If you have your hopes up, I don’t mean to squash them … but …

Unfortunately, you’ve got the odds stacked against you.

Don’t fret though, there is a way to succeed … however …

Here’s the thing — this is going to require hard work, dedication, and discipline. You’re going to have to work harder than the person who has no other responsibilities.

In other words, you’re going to have to work double-time. You’ll have to work at your full-time job and work at building your freelancing book of business.

You’ll have to prioritize building a business over Netflix and Video Games.

You’ll have to work when people are going out for a happy hour.

It won’t be like this forever, but when you’re just getting started.

You have other responsibilities. You will often have to push the other stuff to the side for a while to get your new freelancing career off the ground.

This is a hard pill to swallow for many.

Many have a hard time giving up the life luxury that they’ve become accustomed to. However, if you want an extraordinary life, one that freelancing can provide, then you need to put in the extra work to bring that dream to fruition. It’s just how it works.

If you have a full-time job that you cannot quit or cannot go part-time on, this will be your reality.

Again, it is what its.

Just know this – it won’t be that way forever – just for a little bit.

How long?

Maybe 3-6 months until you get “on your feet” in regards to freelancing.

So, how do you start?

Let’s get to it …

The Stair Step Approach to Freelancing Full Time

As I mentioned before, this will require some work, but this four-step process is one I’ve done myself with success. I’ve also mentored many others in this exact method. They’ve gone from knowing nothing about freelancing to freelancing full-time.

Step 1: Part-Time / Nights and Weekends

This is where you get your feet wet with freelancing. It’s a good place for you to learn whether or not you like the experience of freelancing or not.

You’ll find a part-time gig either through your network that should be Lon longer than 1-2 weeks of working 2-3 hours a night and weekends if need be (friends, family, colleagues, etc.).

If you work 3 hours a night and 8 hours on the weekends, that gives you 31 hours of work.

3 Hours a day x 5 Days = 15 hours

8 Hours a day x 2 Days = 16 Hours

15 + 16 = 31 Hours a week

If it’s a two-week project, it’s something you could get done in about 62 hours.

I know what you’re thinking …

“Whoa, that means I’m working full time every day of the week, including weekends.”

Yep, I know … not fun.

You can go higher on your workload, but this depends on you and how soon you want to break into freelancing and the capacity in which you’re looking to do it (part-time or full-time).

Why a 1-2 week project?

This is so you can see what it feels like to interact with ac client on a day-to-day basis and deliver something to them by a deadline. You will most likely be talking to them over video chat, a chat tool, and maybe something like WhatsApp or Signal.

At the end of the 1-2 weeks, you will have a good idea if you like this or not. I recommend you do this for 1-2 months. Take some time off between gigs (a few days, a week), so you don’t burn out.

After doing that for 1-2 months, you’ll move onto …

Step 2: Larger Scope Projects

This is essentially the same as part 1, but the scope of the project is more considerable. Usually 1-2 months. I recommend starting with a month-long project if possible.

The same things apply here: You’re trying to see if you enjoy this. 1-2 week projects are usually very fine-grained in scope and not much changes. When you move onto a 1-2 month project, things will change.

The scope will decrease or increase. Things will change in the engagement, problems will pop up. Keeping it about 1-2 months long gives you just enough time to see if you like it and enjoy it without burning you out too much.

Do this for 1-3 months.

Take off some time between gigs, so you don’t burn yourself out. I recommend taking at least one-two weeks off between gigs if you have a full-time job, family, kids, etc.

Think of this as a sprint.

After you’ve done this and still feel this is something you want to do, it’s time to go all-in …

Step 3: Full Project from 1-3 months

This is going to be a big project, one where you’re working 30-40 hours a week on top of your regular job.

Yes, you’re going to be working double time.

This is insane.

Yes. I know.

Yes, I’ve done it.

I do not recommend it, except for when starting out.

So why would I recommend it then?

I recommend that you only do this if you do not have a large reserve of cash saved up.

A large cash reserve would be 6-12 months of savings that would cover your expenses.

Here’s a thing I didn’t mention until now …

During this entire time, you need to be saving everything you earn from freelancing.

Put it away, forget that you ever earned it.

Open another bank account and get it out of sight.

Those 1-2 week gigs?

Save all that money.

Those 1-2 month projects?

Save all that money.

This big 1-3 month project?

Save all that money.

You should be absolutely sure that freelancing is something you want to do full time. If not, then this is not a path you should go down. You’ll also need to have money saved up to cover your expenses for 6-12 months. I’ll get to why in a moment.

You can still work your full-time job and do part-time freelancing.

That’s Ok — there’s nothing wrong with that.

If you go down this road, I’m going to warn you up front – this is burning the candle at both ends. It’s not sustainable.

I do not recommend doing this more than once a year.

This will burn you out.

However, it will also give you the experience of what it’s like working for a client full time. Your hours are different, of course (due to a job, life, etc.), but you’re working double-time to make this happen.

This is where you realize

“Wow, I really love this freelancing thing.”

… or you realize …

“OMG, I wish I could just go back to my regular 9-5. This freelancing thing is such a pain in the rear.”

Again, during this time, save everything you make.

If you’ve made it this far and you’re still chomping at the bit to continue, then you’re ready for …

Step 4: Going Full Time in Freelancing

You’re now ready to give your notice and start working full-time for a client.

However, before you provide your notice to your full-time employer, you need to ensure you have a good 3-6 month client engagement set up. Meaning, you need to make sure you have work set up before you’ve given notice.

Once you’ve done this, you’ve made it! Congrats!

Why you need to save 6-12 months of expenses before you go full-time in freelancing …

Having 6-12 months of expenses saved is VERY IMPORTANT.

Why?

When you start freelancing/consulting, you’ll often bill your client on the first of the month for the work you did last month. At that point, you’ve gone 30 days without payment.

The typical payment terms of freelancing and consulting are NET30. This means the clients 30 days to pay you from the time they get the invoice.

Here’s the dirty little secret no one tells you when you start out …

95% of clients will cut you a check on the day it’s due. Meaning that if you sent the invoice on June 1st with a due date of June 30th … they’ll cut the check on June 30th. Then, they’ll send it through the mail, and it will take 7-10 business days to get you. This is how it’s often done in the USA.

Therefore, you are anywhere from 60-70 days without getting paid.

This is why you need 6-12 months of expenses saved up. Not 2-3 months, not 3-4 months … 6-12.

Why 6-12?

Unfortunately, some clients don’t pay on time and are late, or you have to get lawyers involved (I have had to do this). At that point, it can take 3-6 months to get your money.

The last thing you need to worry about when you’re embarking on a new freelance career is:

“How am I going to buy groceries or pay the mortgage?”

Having these expenses saved and living within your means will pay dividends very much here.

If you do that, you’ll be able to weather the storm of just starting out as a freelancer.

During this entire time, you should make sure that you’re charging the correct amount, managing client expectations, and building your personal brand. This is so that you constantly have new clients coming in. I’ll show you how to do all of that and more on my YouTube channel.

Photo by Yi Liu on Unsplash

5 Freelance Estimating Tips That Will Land You More Clients

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Freelance Estimating Tips

Estimating is hard, especially when you’re a freelancer or consultant.

If you provide the wrong estimate, there’s a high chance you won’t get the project.

This is true if you estimate too high or too low.

How do you provide good estimates that give the client confidence and are reasonable? 

There’s a couple of tips …

Tip 1: Never give an estimate over the phone or immediately when asked 

Unless you know for sure how much it will cost. You must be rock solid on this without any wavering hesitation.

An example of this would be if you were a WordPress developer and the client wanted a particular theme set up that you have installed and set up 20 times before. You have scripts written for it. You have the entire process automated almost. Every time you set up this theme in WordPress, it takes you 15 hours and never more. Then you can give the number.

You have to be rock solid on this. If you’re unsure in any way, even 1% do not give a number.

Instead, say, “I don’t know for certain, but I need to take a deeper look at this. Let me get back to you in 24 hours with an estimate, and we’ll go from there.” 

If they keep pressuring you, which will happen … you can use the amplify technique to detract them from pushing you.

Example: 

Them:

“C’mon, you’re the pro here. You’ve got to have a rough ballpark idea of how much it’s going to cost. Just let me know; I trust you.”

You:

“I don’t know, and I have a process in which I go through for all estimations, so it is hard to say. I do know it won’t be a million dollars, though. Haha. Let me get back to you asap on this. Don’t worry; I’ll take care of you.” Say this with a friendly tone. 

They’re looking for you to say a number, so they stick you with it. If you say $2,000 right then and there, and then you get into the nitty-gritty of the estimate and see that it’s going to be closer to $6,000, well, when you tell the client this, they’re not going to be happy. 

Be sure to give yourself some time 24-72 hours (depends on your schedule/etc.); there’s a reason for this which I’ll get below. I usually opt for 24 hours to show that I’m prompt. If I’m busy with existing client work, I’ll let them know that it might be 48-72 hours before I get back to them.

Tip 2: Understand the Scope of the Project

If you don’t know the project’s scope, how are you going to estimate it? 

The difference between a four-screen mobile app and a 24 screen mobile app is vast. 

How do you get the scope? 

It would be best if you asked for as spec.

If you’re lucky, the client will have a spec that they can give you. If you’re fortunate, they’ll have mockups. If you’re working with a top-tier pro client, you’ll get all of the above as well as a color and style guide and more. 

I know what you’re thinking …

I don’t have any of that. The client wants me to build a slimmed-down version of Strava; how do I estimate that?

Simple … have a discovery call.

The discovery call is a call with the client where the only goal is to discover what the project should entail so you can estimate it. You need to ask questions about the app, how many screens it has (or pages if it’s a web page, or endpoints if it’s an API, or just integration points if it’s an integration). It would be best if you asked about error conditions, logging, monitoring, etc. 

This will help you develop a spec that you can use to estimate.

A couple of things about discovery calls …

  • You need to time-box them. I recommend 30-60 minutes at most. If it’s longer than that, then you need to put a price on it.
  • It would be best to get them to provide you with a spec via email first. Ask the client all the same questions you would ask them in the call, but over email. 

Example: 

Jane, 

I’m looking forward to helping you and your team out. To accurately estimate the project, I need to get my hands around the scope of the project. Would you be so kind as to send me the following details:

  • What screens you need. 
  • What each screen does.
  • Is there any API communication with each screen? If so, what kind?
  • Does this app need portrait and landscape mode?
  • What shall we do when we encounter errors (if you’re unsure, I can advise you and your team on some best practices).
  • Are there any logging requirements?
  • Do I need to install analytics software. If so, what actions need reporting?

If you have design mockups, that would be great as it would help me make my estimate more concrete. If not, no big deal; we can figure it out as we go.

Best regards,

Donn

You want as much detail as possible.

Once you get your date, you’ll need to estimate each screen. Depending on the screen, this can be anywhere from 8-16 hours per screen, in my experience. 

Why such a variance? If all goes well and perfect, it should take 8 hours; if not, it could take 16.

This estimate example is not rock-solid advice I’m giving you. This varies by app. You have to understand the scope of the app. For example, if you needed me to build simple forms over data app in Flutter with four screens using the material design theme with default colors … well, I can bang that out in a day or two. It all depends on your skill level and what you’re building.

If they need custom animations, special interactions, and so forth, the price goes up—That’s just how it goes.

There are tons of estimating books out there, but none of them have ever really made me confident more than experience.

Tip 3: Provide ranges, not concrete numbers

 When you provide your estimate, do not provide a concrete number.

What is a concrete number? 

A concert number looks like this: $12,250.00 

It would look like this in an estimate:

To build your application, it will cost $12,250.00 

Why should you not do this? 

Because clients always want more yet don’t want to pay more. Suppose you give a concrete number, you pigeonhole yourself into that number and then have to argue your way out of it if the specifications change.

… and they will change … they always change. 

I’ve had hundreds of clients over rate last 15 years, and I’ve never had one single project where the specification did not change.

Therefore, you will want to give a range estimate. 

You give a low-high estimate. 

Example: This project will cost anywhere from $12,250 to $20,500

This estimate includes a low-end “everything is perfect” number and then a high-end “everything goes wrong” number. 

These numbers can be vastly different and most of the time are. Sometimes the high number can be double or triple (or more) of the low end. 

When would it be like this? 

This variance would happen when the client does not give you much to estimate but has all kinds of requests. The more unknowns there is, the more variance in the estimate.

If the client gives you rock-solid mockups, design style guides, assets, etc. Your estimate might look more like: $12,250 – $16,250

Notice there is still a range. Remember … there are always changes to the specification. ALWAYS.

Clients are human, too; they forget things.

Note, I do realize this goes against much of the negotiating advice out there. However, I have used this exact method for over 15 years in my freelance and consulting career and have rarely ever lost a bid. I’ll tell you why …

When clients get this estimate, they will attach themselves to the lower number. That’s ok.

You have to make it very clear that the estimate is from X-Y and that, most likely, the price will fall between X and Y. 

Example:

“This project will cost anywhere between $12,250 – $20,500. Why such a large range? If everything goes perfect and we do not have to change anything based upon the requirements provided, the price will be $12,250. If everything goes sideways and we have lots of problems, and many changes need to take place, it could end up going up to $20,500. I often find that projects end up somewhere in the middle because there always seems to be something to change. I’ll do my best to get you close to the lower end, but I wanted you to be aware of where it could go based upon my experience.”

This statement puts the onus on the client. It says this: “Look, give me a rock-solid spec, and your price will be lower. Give me very loose specs, and it will cost you because you will keep changing things and changes cost money.”

This process works wonders with clients and usually opens the doors because it shows you’re flexible, and gives them room to breathe and hope that you can do the project for the lower price, but you’ve made it clear that it CAN cost more if they give you garbage specs.

Tip 4: Email your Estimate with Letterhead

I do not advise delivering your estimate over the phone unless you have a background in sales and negotiating.

Why? 

When you’re live on the phone or in person, you’re more apt to feel the pressure of the sales process, and you’re more apt to make mistakes early in your career that can cost you a significant amount of money. 

I’ve found it’s often best for software developers to deliver the estimate over email because it’s truly asynchronous. Software developers are often very well-spoken in the written form. Use that to your advantage.

In an email, you can spend time crafting the message so that it’s very professional. 

I recommend that you provide the estimate in a PDF on letterhead that you’ve created. You can do this in Google Docs; it’s easy. Add an image to the header of your doc, put your freelancing/consulting company name, their name and then outlay the project. Then drop the price.

This one just makes you look pro. 

This is far better than a random email saying,

“Hey man, I think this should cost about $1,500 bucks”.

If you know the person and you’re very good friends with them, then that approach will probably work for you. However, if you’re working with a legit client whose business you want to win, professionalism will go a long way. 

Put your estimate and explanation (as I did above with the range estimate) into that PDF and attach it to the email.

When you email them, let them know that you appreciate the opportunity and that the estimate is attached. Also, let them know that they should email you if they have any questions. Then, set a reminder for 48 hours. If the client does not reply within 48 hours, you should reach out to them again and ask them if they had any questions about the estimate or need clarification. 

Tip 5: The MVP Approach

Hopefully, when you hear back from the client, you’ll get a “Yes,” and the engagement will start. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way.

The client will often reply, saying something is more than they expected. 

Now it’s time to dig in and see if you can get a number from them.

You can ask them,

“I’m curious, how much did you think this project was going to cost?” 

Very often, they’ll reply with their own estimate. 

Let’s say your estimate was $12,250-$20,500. They reply back with $6,000-$8,000.

If they do not decide to move forward because your estimate is too high, you do not lower your prices because prices are prices. That’s just how it is. When you buy a house, you don’t get to tell the seller that you only have $50,000 to spend, so they should lower the house price from $200,000 to meet what you have. The world doesn’t work that way. 

 However, there is another option … the MVP approach.

The MVP approach is where you figure out the bare minimum that they need to have an operational app/web app/etc. Very often, the original estimate is an estimate for EVERYTHING they need and the kitchen sink.

Tell them that you still want to work with them and that you’d like to get something working so they can ship their product. Tell them that you can trim some screens and features to get it down to $6,000 – $8,000. 

In short, you’re pruning the scope of the project to fit within their budget yet still building something of value for them.

Now you have to work with the client to figure out the minimum viable product (MVP).

  • What are the basic screens and features that have to be there? 
  • What screens are not vital?

Very often, a client will say, “It all has to be there.” 

That’s rarely the case.

Use your analytical mind to help them figure out the product’s key features and then prune down the scope to ship just those. 

Very often, this is possible, but sometimes it’s not. Sometimes the client is too unreasonable with their idea of how much it should cost. That’s ok. You have to be willing to walk. 

However, much of the time, you can prune the project’s scope to fit their budget. At that time, you build the product and do your absolute best. 

What happens next is serendipity. 

When you do this for them, and it proves valuable and fruitful for them. The client will often invite you to develop the other features via another bid or an hourly engagement.

I’ve lost track of how many times this has happened.

As an example, about six years ago, a client reached out and wanted me to build an Android app. I estimated it would cost anywhere from $24,000 – $40,000 to build. 

They thought that was outrageous. 

I used the MVP approach and got it down to $10,000 with the MVP features.

We shipped the product, they loved it, and they had me develop more features. I was eventually offered a CTO role at the company (which I declined for various reasons). Overall this was a $10,000 client that turned into a $60,000 client at the end.

Simply because of the MVP approach. I’ve used this for MANY clients, and it works wonders.

The Final Word

If you follow these tips, you’ll find that you have more success with your estimates because more conversations will happen, and it will allow you to build trust and authority with the client. Trust is the foundation of these relationships. Being professional and attentive to their needs as a business will win you more opportunities than an informal estimate.

I hope that helps. 

Photo by Crissy Jarvis on Unsplash